Benjamin Saff: German (Un)Friendliness?

So I had this preconceived notion that when I got to Germany it would be extremely hard to make friends with local Germans. All because a read one blog post online which stated, among other oblivious generalizations, that German students were very formal, hard to make friends with, and hard to impress. So just because of that reading, I built up a bit of expectation about how my fellow German students would act towards me. I’m glad to say this generalization was debunked numerous times during my stay so far.

I went to a few events where I was the only non-German there and was met with nothing but warm welcomes and friendly conversation. One guy who I met only once offered to lend me his Lederhosen for Oktoberfest. Another girl invited me to go traveling with them in rural Germany for a weekend, one of my best experiences yet. And above all, almost every German I met tried to help me improve my German speaking and met my slow and sometimes jumbled phrases with the utmost patience. My flatmate would even take walks with me from time to time and I would speak German while she responded in English.

So I guess that blogger had a bad experience but I have to say that I have met enough Germans to know that his experience is not at all reflective of the general reality. I don’t believe any generalizations truly are. There will always be friendly people and there will always be unfriendly people (like this mean lady at the post office I talked to yesterday) no matter which culture you are in.